Iwatani to Build New General Technology Center (Tentative Name) in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture Enhances Collaborative Experimentation and Demonstration Functions that Meet Customer Needs— Due for Completion as a Technological Base in March 2013 —

Iwatani Corporation (Head office: Tokyo and Osaka; President: Akiji Makino; Paid-in capital: 20 billion yen) will build a New General Technology Center (tentative name / seven-story building) in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture and transfer the research and development functions of the existing Shiga Technology Center (STC) in Moriyama, Shiga Prefecture to the new location. The new center will boast upgraded and expanded functions for performing collaborative experiments, contracted experiments, technical support, consulting and so on at the request of Iwatani’s manufacturing partners and others, and its prime location will also be used to enhance and expand the provision of high-quality services that utilize analysis and experimental analysis functions.

Construction will begin in April 2012 and will be due for completion in March 2013, at a total construction cost of approximately three billion yen.

Iwatani is also considering the establishment of a hydrogen station in parallel to the center.

In addition to research and development functions related to industrial gas and various other gases Iwatani has developed to date, the New General Technology Center will seek to enhance the following functions to meet the diverse needs of its customers.

The research building of the New General Technology Center will itself implement the ideal

combination of energies, including LPG, solar batteries and hydrogen energy.

Aside from gas-engine heat pumps (GHP) and emergency generators that will use LPG,

solar panels, fuel cell generation that works by collecting boil off gas (BOG)*2 from liquefied

hydrogen storage tanks and the hydrogen discharged after experiments, wall greening, LED

lighting and other innovations will be employed. In this way, the building will function as a

place for demonstrating a new energy-oriented society, and it will be used to propose

Iwatani’s energy concepts and suggest eco-houses based on those concepts.

* ISO 17025: This is an accreditation given to businesses and organizations reviewed by a third-party accreditation organization and deemed capable of performing accurate experimentation and analysis based on official methods such as JIS. Iwatani obtained ISO 17025 accreditation regarding techniques for the analysis of minute trace quantities of impurities in high-purity gas. This marks the first time in Japan that ISO 17025 accreditation has been obtained for gas analysis.

* Boil off gas (BOG): This refers to the gas that evaporates due to factors such as natural heat input from outside when low-temperature liquefied gases such as liquefied hydrogen is transported or stored.

■Rendering of the Completed Center

[Outline of the General Technology Center]

Location

3-3-13 Tsugiya, Amagasaki-shi, Hyogo Prefecture

Site Area

7,420 m2

Total Floor Area

Approx. 12,000 m2

Main Buildings

Main structure made up of a reception building, large experiment building and research building(seven story), and a general administrative building.

Access

Approx. 5 minutes by taxi from JR Amagasaki Station or Hankyu Sonoda Station.